North Bay farmers still concerned about drought effects and heavy rains
The El Nino effect produced by the warming of the north Pacific Ocean generated a heavy rain pattern in early 2023 not seen for several years in California. These storms delayed the planting season in some areas and contributed to rising food prices, while increasing costs for farmers still recovering from high feed prices incurred during the drought. The National Weather Service reported that California received an estimated 78 trillion gallons of water during the winter and early spring 2022–2023 delivered by more than a dozen atmospheric rivers, narrow bands of intense moisture, that drenched the state. As a result, some 60% of the state’s farmland had surplus water.